Precious stones and heavy metal

After one look at the trio of Andrea Genevieve, Ashley Spungin and Morgan Ray Denning, you may not know what style of music to expect from a group with such a lively onstage presence. The women of Purple Rhinestone Eagle, which performs tonight at Holocene, have developed a following with their heavy-rock-centered music that doesn’t line up with what many would anticipate from the group. Black Sabbath, Black Widow and Pentagram are just a few bands that the group draws inspiration from as they create their unexpected sound.

The band played their first show while living in Philadelphia, Pa., in the summer of 2005 and subsequently gained steam upon moving to Portland and immersing themselves in the Pacific Northwest music scene.

“We decided to move out to Portland because we wanted to get a change of scenery,” Genevieve said. “Bands are very supportive of each other. It’s way more progressive, way more community oriented.”

As the band prepares to record its first full-length album, The Great Return, next month, they also prepare for their first international tour as they head to Europe. Though the music scene will be different, they are traveling with the goal of playing music and making new friends. This may be easier than expected for the band as they have already gained major support from venues in Europe.

“I’ve been closely working with a couple of bookers there,” Genevieve said. “One woman who lives in Berlin…and another woman who lives in the U.K. who is booking that part of our tour…just the amount of support already we are receiving from them is incredible.”

The Great Return will give Purple Rhinestone Eagle a chance to show their consistency through an entire album, as they have only released singles to date. It will focus on being a complete work instead of just a number of independent songs, which the band thinks enhances their musical maturity.

“What we were lacking in previous recordings was just a sense of overall feeling to it,” Genevieve said. “And there’s definitely going to be a flow to the album that we haven’t had present before. Everything is incredibly intentional.”

As each band member has evolved, their writing style has become more group oriented. Each member has contributed to the larger feel of each track as well as the overarching theme of the album.

“It’s definitely been a lot more collaborative than things have been in the past,” Genevieve said. “It’s been the three of us literally sitting in the practice space working on part by part. We like to make sure everything fits very, very well together.”

Purple Rhinestone Eagle will be playing a different kind of show at Holocene tonight. Instead of a normal set of songs fans would recognize, the band will play the score for one of three films being shown at the venue. They have never provided a score for a film before and are looking forward to the opportunity.

“The film that we are scoring is Lucifer Rising,” Genevieve said. “We composed all original music for it and part of what we are doing is going to be very improvised at the beginning.”

Purple Rhinestone Eagle
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St.
Tonight, 8 p.m.
$2 suggested donation
21+